The  Book  of  Common  Prayer 
our  Common  Heritage. 

GEORGE  B.  SPALDING,  D.  D.,  LL.  D. 


^.4^,03 


•s.t>^ 


^i  \\:\t  (B^^logicai  0 


PRINCETON.  N.J. 


^/^/. 


^^. 


■^^i 


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BX  5945  .S63  1899 
Spalding,  George  B.  1835- 

1914. 
The  Book  of  common  prayer, 

our  common  heritage 


THE  BOOK  OF  COMMON  PRAYER 
OUR  COMMON  HERITAGE. 


/ 

GEORGE  B.  SPALDING,  D.  D.,  LL.  D., 

^  Pastor  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church, 

SYRACUSE,   N.  Y. 


THE  BOOK  OF  COMMON  PRAYER  OUR  COMMON 

HERITAGE. 

The  Book  of  Common  Prayer  fills  a  very  large  space  in  the 
service  of  the  Episcopal  church.  In  it  the  creed,  the  polity,  and 
the  worship  of  that  great  church  find  their  expression,  and  very 
life.  Even  as  such  the  history  of  the  Book  is  worthy  of  any 
scholar's  thorough  search,  of  every  Christian's  understanding  and 
of  the  admiration  of  all  lovers  of  best  literature.  We  may  not  be 
able  to  say  with  Froude  the  historian:  "The  beautiful  roll  of  its 
language  mingles  with  the  memories  of  childhood  ;  it  is  the  guide 
of  our  dawning  thought,  and  accompanies  us  through  each  stage 
of  life  with  its  chaste  ceremonials  from  the  font  to  the  edge  of  the 
grave."  But  as  scholars  we  all  can  say  with  him:  "Next  to  the 
Bible,  there  are  few  things  which  have  affected  the  character  of 
the  modern  English  more  deeply  than  the  Liturgy." 

But  the  Book  has  a  much  broader  claim  than  even  this  suggests. 
The  Prayer  Book  is  a  history  of  Christianity.  In  it  is  to  be  found 
the  faith  of  the  church,  its  song,  worship,  struggles,  earthly  fail- 
ures, its  heavenly  aspirations  and  attainments.  The  Book  is  the 
product  of  every  Christian  age,  and  Christian  people,,  Reformers  '' 
and  Puritans,  Presbyterians  and  Lutherans,  as  well  as  Romanists 
and  Churchmen,  have  built  into  the  massive  structure  corner 
stones  and  towering  columns,  and  have  bound  its  walls  and  towers 
with  mortar  mixed  with  the  tears  and  blood  of  a  common  mar- 
tyrdom. As  such  the  Prayer  Book  challenges  the  profoundest 
interest  of  all  Christians. 

I  have  before  me  a  copy  of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer. 
What  is  it  historically  ?  This  is  the  question  that  I  would  answer. 
As  we  carefully  and  reverently  turn  its  pages  we  notice  how 
very  much  of  the  Book  is  taken  from  the  Service-Book  or  Bre- 
viary or  Missal,  of  what  we  call  the  Roman  church.  In  the  two 
books,  that  used  today  in  the  Catholic  church  and  that  used  in  the 
Episcopal  church,  we  find  far  more  sameness  than  difference  ;  just 
as,  but  not  to  an  equal  degree,  we  find  a  likeness  between  our 
authorized  Protestant  Bible  and  the  Douay,  the  Romish  Bible. 

When  Christianity  was  set  up  among  our  forefathers  in  ancient 
Britain,  worshipers  of  the  sun-god  and  the  serpent's  egg,  some   r^ 
parts  of  the  service  found  alike  in  the  church  book  of  both  the 
Roman  and  the  English  worship  of  today,  were  recited  by  these 

—  1  — 


Christian  missionaries  in  the  ears  of  these  awe-struck  idolators. 
Many  of  the  psalms,  hymns  and  canticles  were  sung,  some  of 
them  at  midnight,  some  at  early  morning,  and  again  at  evening 
twilight,  in  the  first  osier-built  churches,  the  same  psalms  and 
hymns  and  canticles  which  are  now  repeated  day  by  day  or  week 
by  week  under  the  groined  roofs  of  Roman  and  Episcopal 
cathedrals  or  in  the  humble  churches.  And  when  the  British  race 
and  Christianity  were  trodden  out  under  the  feet  of  Saxon  heathen, 
the  new  religion  found  shelter  for  its  faith  and  for  its  followers 
in  the  wild  districts  of  Wales  and  Cornwall  and  among  the  Scot- 
tish Hebrides  and  in  Ireland,  still  singing  its  one  unbroken  psalm 
and  canticle,  and  uttering  its  unending  prayer. 

It  was  the  dream  of  Pope  Gregory  to  reconquer  the  British 
Islands  for  the  cross.  When  in  almost  the  last  year  of  the  sixth 
century  Augustine  and  his  group  of  robed  priests  and  choristers 
landed  in  England  the  stately  ritual  of  the  ancient  church  was 
observed,  the  Kyrie  Eleison,  the  Te  Deum  and  the  Gloria  were 
sung,  and  the  Apostles'  and  Nicene  creeds  were  repeated,  and  the 
prayers  of  Gelasius  and  Chrysostom  and  the  Litany  were  recited, 
in  much  of  the  same  majestic  words  and  utterance  as  we  may 
hear  them  today. 

As  the  centuries  rolled  on,  bringing  with  them  in  God's  own 
slow  but  sure  way  the  great  revolutions  in  kingdoms  and  the 
greater  reformations  in  the  church,  the  ancient  order  of  worship 
with  all  the  alterations  and  additions  which  had  been  made  in  it 
remained  as  yet  untouched  by  the  reforming  spirit.  Luther  with 
his  re-discovery  of  the  Hebrew  prophet's  doctrine  of  the  life  of 
faith,  shattered  the  walls  of  the  vast  fabric  of  the  Roman  church. 
Learning  in  universities  and  schools  and  household  studies,  and 
rude,  plain  preaching  by  road-side  and  in  market  places,  and, 
mightier  than  all,  the  Word  of  God  translated  into  the  mother 
tongue  of  the  people,  and  now  for  the  first  time  working  in  their 
souls;  these  like  celestial  lights  were  exposing  to  the  people's 
gaze  the  festering  corruptions,  the  vast  usurpations,  and  the  all- 
crushing  tyrannies  of  the  ecclesiastical  power  which  was  over 
them,  and  all  around  them,  and  even  in  them. 

The  king  of  England,  Henry  the  VIII,  chafing  under  the  des- 
potism of  the  Pope,  as  a  rival  of  his  own  despotism,  longing  too 
for  largest  liberty  for  his  lust,  touched  too,  no  doubt  with  a  noble 
national  spirit,  severed  throne  and  kingdom  and  church  from  all 
allegiance  to  the  Pope  at  Rome.     And  yet  despite  all  these  forces 

—2— 


of  revolution  without,  and  the  even  more  powerful  forces  of  evo- 
lution from  within,  the  ancient  ritual  of  service,  both  that  of  the 
primitive  and  pure  faith  and  practice  of  the  church,  and  the  accre- 
tions of  corruption  and  superstition  and  falsity  which  had  been 
gathered  through  centuries  remained  really  unchanged.  The  old 
Prayer  Book  continued  to  be  used  under  the  reign  of  this  first 
Protestant  king.  In  the  chamber  of  his  last  sickness  the  Mass 
was  daily  said;  at  his  funeral  Mary  the  Mother  of  God  and  all  the 
saints  were  duly  invoked,  and  the  hand  that  in  the  engraved  title- 
page  of  the  translated  Bible  is  shown  as  delivering  the  free  Word 
of  God  to  his  lords,  signed  a  will  by  which  six  hundred  pounds 
annually  were  to  be  given  to  priests  to  say  mass  for  his  soul 
every  day,  and  for  four  abiits,  each  year,  whatever  these 
last  may  be.  Doubtless  this  first  of  Protestant  sovereigns  and 
"Defender  of  the  Faith"  needed  these  last.  This  was  four  and  a 
half  centuries  ago. 

And  now  came  on  the  stage  one  of  those  phenomenal  person- 
ages which  the  ever  wakeful  providence  of  God  fashions,  whose 
career  however  brief  was  so  potent  in  character  as  to  change  all 
the  successive  acts  in  the  mighty  drama  that  followed.  On  the 
death  of  Henry  VIII,  Edward,  his  son  by  the  best  loved  of  his 
many  wives,  Jane  Seymour,  became  Edward  VI,  King  of  Eng- 
land. He  was  a  mere  boy  in  age,  of  only  nine  years,  but  his 
learning  was  marvelous,  and  his  piety  deep,  and  most  serious,  and 
his  will  to  give  free  scope  to  the  reformed  religion  throughout 
every  part  of  the  church  and  kingdom  was  all  dominant.  His  n^ 
reign  was  short,  only  for  six  years,  but  in  it,  this  really  first 
Protestant  king  wrought  a  revolution  in  spiritual  affairs  and  re- 
constructed, or  perhaps  more  truly  constructed  the  church  of 
England. 

One  of  the  very  first  acts  of  this  Christian  prince,  was  to  strike 
from  the  Church  Book  the  whole  service  of  the  Mass.  The 
Eucharist  became  at  once  a  communion  instead  of  a  sacrifice  and 
for  the  first  time  the  sacrament  in  both  kinds  was  presented  to  the 
people. 

This  first  Book  of  Common  Prayer  was  followed  by  a  second 
in  the  short  reign  of  this  illustrious  Christian  king,  in  which  the  / 
spirit  of  the  Reformation  found  fuller  sway.  The  first  book,  that 
of  1549,  shows  the  separation  that  had  taken  place  from  the  Rom- 
ish phase  of  Christianity,  and  the  second  book,  that  of  1552,  shows 
the  separation   that  had  taken   place   from   the    Lutheran   phase 

—3— 


Both  were  for  the  establishment  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Eucharist 
as  a  communion  and  not  a  sacrifice. 

The  new  Book  of  Common  Prayer  as  we  compare  it  with  the 
Roman  Breviary  and  Missal  which  had  been  in  use  for  so  many  cen- 
turies, and  which  were  in  use  even  in  the  English  church  under  Henry 
VIII,  the  new  book  of  Edward's  reign  (I  refer  to  the  Prayer  Book 
of  1552),  and  of  every  subsequent  reign  since,  and  here  in 
America,  to-day,  what  is  this  "Book  of  Common  Prayer"  ?  where 
are  its  sources  ?  My  first  answer  is :  In  the  ancient  church 
what  we  may  call  in  distinction  from  the  Romish  church,  the 
primitive  church.  The  English  Prayer  Book  was  not  a  new  book, 
but  a  revision  of  the  old  book.  It  was  an  excision  of  the  cor- 
ruptions, and  superstitions,  and  mummeries  and  idolatries  which 
through  the  mediaeval  period  had  been  gathered  into  the 
old  book  of  worship,  its  form  and  rites  and  prayers.  So  looking 
at  this  Prayer  Book  we  find  it  in  the  main,  made  up  of  the 
Te  Deum  of  St.  Ambrose,  St.  Augustine,  Hilary,  one  or  all  of 
them  ;  the  creeds  of  Rufinus  and  Athanasius,  the  Gloria  in 
Excelsis  of  the  Eastern  church,  the  Gloria  Patri  of  the  Western,  the 
prayers  and  collects  of  Gelasius,  of  Chrysostom,  of  Gregory 
and  Leo,  the  Litany,  the  Vinite,the  Magnificat,  the  Kyrie  Eleison, 
all  and  more  of  like  kind  which  were  in  use  in  the  church  of  Christ, 
before  the  year  600,  when  as  yet  faith  was  simple  and  clear-eyed, 
and  love  was  deep  and  fervid,  and  Christian  life  was  pure  and  all- 
convincing. 

But  this  Prayer  Book  of  Edward  is  not  only  a  retainment  of  the 
primitive  forms  and  an  elimination  of  the  mediaeval,  it  is  also  an 
addition,  an  altogether  new  expression  of  worship.  There  are 
Introductions,  and  Exhortations,  and  Confessions  and  Thanks- 
giving and  Absolution,  the  distinctive  products  of  the  great  Ref- 
ormation. Whence  came  these  ?  These  form  a  very  great  part  of 
all  that  is  really  new  in  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer.  Doubtless 
Cranmer,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  and  Primate  of  the  English 
church,  had  much  to  do  both  by  his  sympathy  with  the  Reforma- 
tion and  his  superb  literary  taste,  in  moulding  the  new  book  into 
its  ampler  proportions  and  its  most  beautiful  expressions.  But 
no  greater  mistake  can  be  committed  than  to  suppose  that  the 
distinctive  parts  of  the  English  Prayer  Book  are  to  be  attributed 
to  Cranmer  or  to  any  other  or  others  in  the  English  church.  Dr. 
Cardwell,  an  Episcopal  authority,  in  his  work  on  the  *'  Two  Books 
of  Common   Prayer,"  states   that   "  the  new  liturgy  was  greatly 

—4— 


indebted,  wherever  it  deviated  from  the  ancient  breviaries  to  the 
progress  already  made  on  the  continent  in  the  reformation  of 
worship,"  and  this  author  also  calls  attention  to  the  intimate  cor- 
respondence upon  the  subject  of  the  reformed  liturgy  between  the 
great  leaders  in  the  English  church,  and  the  reformers  of  Zurich. 
Cranmer  invited  and  welcomed  to  England,  John  a.  Lasco,  Pol- 
lanus,  Bucer,  Peter  Martyr,  Fagius  and  others.  Martyr  took  up 
his  residence  at  Lambert,  the  palace  of  the  archbishop  and 
became  King's  professor  of  Theology  at  Oxford.  Pollanus  was 
Calvin's  successor  at  Strasburg  and  brought  with  him  to  England 
a  liturgy  which  he  used  for  his  own  congregation,  that  by  special 
invitation  was  wont  to  gather  in  the  great  cathedral  at  Glaston- 
bury. What  part  this  follower  of  Calvin  contributed  to  the  Eng- 
lish Prayer  Book  will  shortly  be  stated.  The  distinguished  Pole, 
a.  Lasco,  another  disciple  of  Calvin,  was  placed  over  the  foreign 
congregation  of  refugees  in  London.  He  had  his  liturgy.  He 
was  intimately  associated  with  the  Primate,  was  his  guest  and  his 
adviser  in  the  whole  work  of  the  English  Reformation.  And 
there  was  Bucer,  one  of  the  most  learned  men,  of  whom  the 
Papal  Legate  Contarini  said :  "  Martin  Bucer,  by  reason  of  the 
wide  extent  of  his  learning,  could  single-handed  have  been  a 
match  for  all  our  Roman  Catholic  doctors."  He  sought  security 
by  acceptance  of  Cranmer's  invitation,  in  England  and  soon  was 
named  by  the  young  king  as  Professor  of  Divinity  at  Cambridge. 
Of  him,  Dr.  Dowden,  the  present  bishop  of  Edinburgh,  says  : 
"  There  can  be  no  question  as  to  the  influence  Bucer  exerted  upon 
the  construction  of  the  first  Prayer  Book."  Melancthon  and 
Calvin  were  in  close  touch  with  all  these  workers  at  this  new 
liturgy,  both  foreign  and  English.  Heylin,  a  church  historian, 
affirms,  and  it  is  repeated  by  Collier,  that  "  the  alterations  made 
in  these  and  other  portions  of  the  liturgy  were  owing  to  the 
remonstrances  of  Calvin,  and  the  active  co-operation  of  Martyr 
and  Bucer."  It  is  a  curious  statement  made  by  a  high  church- 
man. Rev.  Peter  Hall,  in  his  Fragmenta  Liturqica.  He  says : 
"It appears  that  our  English  reformers  intended  to  make  the  three 
or  four  first  centuries  the  only  pattern  for  themselves  :  and  pur- 
posed to  reform  all  the  corrupt  doctrines  and  practices  of  the 
Romish  church,  to  make  them  agreeable  to  the  practice  of  those 
first  ages.  But,  alas  !  how  soon  were  their  pious  and  orthodox 
labors  marred  by  the  interference  of  Calvin,  Bucer  and  other 
foreign    Presbyterians."     John  a.  Lasco  in  his  dedication    of   his 

—5— 


book,  published  in  1555,  gives  an  account  of  his  call  by  King 
Edward  VI.  to  England.  He  says  that  "the  king  wished  him  to 
freely  regulate  all  things  in  his  (a.  Lasco's)  churches  wholly 
according  to  apostolic  doctrine  and  practice  without  any  regard  to 
the  rites  of  the  country  (England),  that  by  this  means  the  Eng- 
lish churches  also  might  be  excited  to  embrace  the  apostolical 
doctrine  and  practice."  Again,  a.  Lasco  says:  "  The  care  of  our 
church  was  committed  to  us  chiefly  with  this  view,  that  in  the 
administration  thereof,  we  should  follow  the  rule  of  the  divine 
word  and  apostolical  observance  rather  than  any  rites  of  other 
churches.  In  fine  we  were  admonished  both  by  the  king  himself, 
and  his  chief  nobility,  to  use  this  great  liberality  granted  us  in 
our  ministry,  rightly  and  faithfully,  not  to  please  men  but  for  the 
glory  of  God,  by  promoting  the  reformation  of  his  worship." 

I  will  now  particularize  the  greater  features  of  the  Prayer  Book, 
so  far  as  they  are  Protestant  in  origin.  Beginning  with  the  very 
beginning,  Proctor,  a  vicar  in  the  church  of  England,  says  :  "The 
truth  respecting  the  very  appropriate  opening  of  our  service 
seems  to  be  that  the  hint  was  taken  from  two  books  of  service 
used  by  congregations  of  refugees  in  England,  which  were  pub- 
lished about  this  time  ;  the  one  being  the  version  of  Calvin's 
liturgy  as  translated  by  Pollanus,  and  the  other  that  used  by  the 
Walloons  under  John  a.  Lasco."  The  idea  of  such  a  penitential 
introduction  was  due  to  Calvin.  Archbishop  Lawrence  says  in 
his  Bampton  lectures:  "In  1552,  when  the  liturgy  was  revised 
and  republished,  not  only  the  Introduction  but  the  Exhortation, 
the  Confession  and  the  Absolution  were  in  some  degree  taken 
from  Calvin's  liturgy,  but  not  from  Calvin's  own  translation,  but 
from  that  by  Pollanus  which  was  printed  in  England  at  the  very 
period  when  the  Prayer  Book  was  under  revision."  Without 
doubt  the  liturgical  form  of  the  Absolution  was  largely  shaped 
by  that  found  in  the  liturgy  of  a.  Lasco.  And  what  have  we  left? 
I  mean  in  that  part  of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  which  is  in 
use  in  the  ordinary  Lord's  day  service  of  the  Episcopal  church? 
What  is  there  left?  A  great  American  scholar,  who  has  passed 
into  the  Episcopal  church,  in  a  work  to  which  he  had  given 
immense  research  and  an  eminently  just  and  catholic  spirit 
declares  that  in  all  this  part  of  the  Prayer  Book  "  there  is  but  a 
single  prayer  that  can  be  traced  to  a  distinctively  Episcopal  ori- 
gin ;  and  for  the  obvious  reason,  partly,  that  that  service  was 
framed  before  the   assertion  of   Prelacy  against    Presbytery,  and 

—6— 


also  that  its  Protestant  additions  and  emendations  are  almost 
exclusively  from  Calvinistic  sources."  I  refer  to  Dr.  Charles  W. 
Shields  of  Princeton.  This  last  year  in  the  series  of  volumes 
known  as  the  Oxford  Library  of  Practical  Theology,  edited  by 
Rev.  W.  C.  E.  Newbolt,  canon  of  St.  Paul's,  and  Rev.  F.  E. 
Brightman,  librarian  of  the  Pusey  House,  Oxford, — in  this  series 
there  had  just  been  published  the  "  History  of  the  Book  of  Com- 
mon Prayer,"  by  the  Rev.  Leighton  Pullon,  lecturer  at  St.  John's 
Oriel  and  Queen's  College.  I  find  in  it  full  confirmation  of  all 
that  I  have  presented  from  other  church  writers  concerning  the 
large  foreign  sources  which  have  created  the  Prayer  Book.  This 
author  going  further  shows  that  most  of  the  opening  address  of 
the  marriage  service,  and  the  joining  of  the  hands  of  the  bride 
and  bridegroom,  and  the  declaration :  'Those  whom  God  hath 
joined  together  let  no  man  put  asunder,'  are  taken  from  a  Luth- 
eran ritual."  It  is  to  the  German,  Hermann,  the  words  :  "Foras- 
much as  N.  and  M.  have  consented  together,"  &c.,  are  to  be 
attributed.  In  the  Baptismal  service,  much  of  the  first  address 
and  the  striking  prayer  and  the  choice  of  the  gospel  of  St.  Mark, 
and  much  of  the  brief  exhortation,  and  those  beautiful  words  : 
"  Doubt  ye  not  therefore,  but  earnestly  believe  that  He  will 
embrace  him  with  the  arms  of  his  mercy,  that  He  will  give  him 
unto  the  blessing  of  eternal  life,  and  make  him  a  partaker  of  his 
everlasting  life,"  and  the  prayer  immediately  following  almost 
word  for  word,  is  owing  to  Luther.  Some  of  the  finest  passages 
in  the  majestic  burial  service  are  traceable  to  the  same  source. 
This  author  calls  us  to  notice  "  that  under  the  Long  parliament  a 
Presbyterian  form  of  prayer  had  been  issued  for  the  use  of  the 
navy,  and  this,  he  says,  probably  suggested  the  use  of  special 
forms  of  prayer  for  those  at  sea,  when  the  church  and  king  were 
restored." 

A  few  days  ago  I  received  a  copy  of  Bishop  Dowden's  book, 
published  in  1899.  The  title  of  it  is  "  The  Workmanship  of  the  Pray- 
er Book.  In  it  I  find  these  words,  "The  church  knows  no  parties. 
It  is  something  to  remember  that  the  Prayer  Book  owes  one  of  its 
chief  est  treasures,  the  chastened  ardor  of  the  General  Thanksgiving 
to  the  pen  and  the  heart  of  the  Puritan,  Edward  Reynolds."  Dr. 
Reynolds  was  one  of  the  most  illustrious  of  the  great  Presbyter- 
ian divines  who  made  up  the  Westminster  Assembly.  It  was  the 
pen  of  this  distinguished  Presbyterian  that  helped  to  shape  those 
sentences  in  our  Confession  in  respect  to  predestination  and  pre- 

—7— 


terition.  Whatever  we  may  say  or  even  think  of  these  fearful 
words,  who  among  us  will  refuse  to  accompany  me,  with  a  pure 
heart  and  with  bowed  heads  unto  the  throne  of  the  heavenly  grace 
as  I  repeat  the  great  Presbyterian  prayer,  "the  chief  est  treasure 
in  the  Prayer  Book"  :  Almighty  God,  Father  of  all  mercies,  we, 
thine  unworthy  servants,  do  give  thee  most  humble  and  hearty 
thanks  for  all  Thy  goodness  and  loving  kindness  to  us,  and  to  all 
men.  We  bless  Thee  for  our  creation,  preservation,  and  all  the 
blessings  of  this  life  ;  but  above  all,  for  Thine  inestimable  love  in 
the  redemption  of  the  world  by  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ :  for  the 
means  of  grace  and  for  the  hope  of  glory.  And  we  beseech  Thee, 
give  us  that  due  sense  of  all  Thy  mercies,  that  our  hearts  may  be 
unfeignedly  thankful,  and  that  we  may  show  forth  Thy  praise,  not 
only  with  our  lips,  but  in  our  lives  ;  by  giving  up  ourselves  to 
Thy  service,  and  by  walking  before  Thee  in  holiness  and  right- 
eousness all  our  days,  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord ;  to  whom 
with  Thee  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  be  all  honor  and  glory,  world 
without  end. — Amen. 


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